K 


W7h 


X 


JAN  23  1919 


THE 

E  ABLY   F  R  I  ENDS 

AND 

Timm  services  in  America. 


the 


EARLY  FRIENDS 

AND 

THEIR  SERVICES  IN  AMERICA 

■     AN  ADDRESS  BEFORE 

THE  FRIENDS'  INSTITUTE  FOR  YOUNG  MEN 

PHILADELPHIA, 

Second    Month    15,  1883, 

BY 

JAMES  J.    LEVICK,    M.  L). 
(Lbirb  (£bitiotT. 

PHILADELPHIA: 

HENRY  LONGSTRETH, 

723  Saxsom  Street. 

188G. 


ELIZABETH  W.  LEVICK, 

THAT  DEAR  MOTHER 
W HOSE   TENDER  SYMPATHY  AND  CARE  IN  THEIR  EARLY  DAYS 
WERE  SO  PRECIOUS  TO  HER  CHILDREN, 
AND  WHO  NOW,  IN  HER  NINETY-  SEVENTH  YEAR, 
WITH   MENTAL  YIGOR  UNIMPAIRED, 
IS  STILL  THEIR  COMFORTER  IN  SORROW,  THEIR  COUNSELLOR  IN  DOUBT, 
THE  JOY  OF  THEIR  HEARTS  AND  THE  LIGHT  OF  THEIR  HOME, 
THIS   BRIEF  HISTORY 
OF  THE  FAITH  IN  WHICH  SHE  SO  HAPPILY  LIVES 
AND   IN   WHICH   HER   FOREFATHERS   PEACEFULLY  DIED 
IS  LOVINGLY  DEDICATED. 


TWO  hundred  and  thirty-five  years  ago  the  Religious 
Society  of  Friends  began  to  be  known  in  England. 
Two  hundred  years  ago  this  Province  was  first  settled  by 
William  Penn.  Of  the  latter  event  we  have  lately  heard 
much,  of  the  former  but  little ;  and  yet  the  latter  was  so 
much  the  natural  sequence  of  the  former,  that  the  history 
of  the  one  is  incomplete  without  the  history  of  the  other. 

I  propose,  therefore,  this  evening  to  speak  of  three  men, 
each  of  whom  was  prominent  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  and  each  of  whom  had  somewhat  to  do 
with  the  settlement  of  Pennsylvania  and  its  vicinity.  I 
allude  to  George  Fox,  Robert  Barclay  and  William  Penn. 

I  am  well  aware  that  to  some  who  are  present  this  account 
will  have  for  them  all  the  familiarity  of  a  thrice-told  tale. 
I  cannot  but  believe  that  to  others,  and  especially  to  the 
younger  members  of  this  Institute,  there  wall  be  some  facts 
mentioned  which  are  new  to  them,  and  I  am  strong  in  the 
conviction  that  it  will  do  no  harm  to  any  of  us  often  to  be 
reminded  what  manner  of  men  they  were  to  whom  as 
Friends,  and  as  Pennsylvanians,  we  owe  so  much. 

George  Fox  was  born  in  Leicestershire,  England,  in  the 
month  called  July,  1624.  He  had  a  good  ancestry,  for  his 
father  was  a  man  whose  honesty  was  proverbial,  and  his 
mother  was  of  the  stock  of  the  martyrs.  His  school  educa- 
tion was  but  moderate,  and  yet  he  was  by  no  means  ignorant 
or  illiterate.  He  was  carefully  brought  up  in  the  faith  and 
practices  of  the  Church  of  England,  to  whose  communion 
his  parents  belonged,  and  of  which  it  was  at  one  time  pro- 
posed he  should  become  a  clergyman.  This,  however,  was 
objected  to  by  some  of  his  family,  and  it  ended  in  his  being 

(5) 


6 


apprenticed,  as  lie  writes,  to  "a  man  who  was  a  shoemaker 
by  trade,"  though  it  does  not  appear  that  George  Fox  him- 
self ever  belonged  to  what  our  poet,  Whittier,  calls  "  the 
gentle  craft  of  leather,"  for,  as  Fox  says  of  his  master,  "  He 
dealt  in  wool  and  used  grazing,  and  sold  cattle,  and  a  great 
deal  of  it  went  through  my  hands."  1 

As  his  childhood  had  been  a  remarkably  grave  and  staid 
one,  so  his  youth  was  one  of  great  innocency  and  purity. 
At  twenty  years  of  age  grave  and  perplexing  questions, 
doubts  and  temptations,  pressed  heavily  upon  him.  The 
mysteries  of  this  life  and  of  the  life  to  come  enshrouded  his 
mind  in  much  darkness,  and  were  accompanied  with  a  state 
of  unrest  from  which  he  vainly  sought  relief.  Various 
were  the  suggestions  made  to  him  at  this  time  by  his  rela- 
tives. One  who  knew  the  steadying  influence  of  a  good 
wife,  advised  him  to  marry  ;  but,  says  he,  "  I  told  him  1  was, 
but  a  lad,  and  must  first  learn  wisdom."  Another  bade  him 
join  the  auxiliary  band  among  the  soldiers  ;  "  but  I  refused, 
and  was  grieved  that  they  proffered  such  things  to  me,  being 
a  tender  youth."  And  so,  his  relatives  proving  no  help  to 
him,  he  turned,  almost  in  despair,  to  "  the  priests,"  whom, 
however,  he  found  to  be  "  miserable  comforters."  One  told 
him  to  "take  tobacco  and  sing  psalms."  "Tobacco,"  he 
says,  "was  a  thing  I  did  not  love,  and  I  was  not  in  an  estate 
to  sing — I  could  not  sing."  One  made  his  troubles  the  sport 
of  his  servants ;  while  another,  whose  conversation  at  first 
gave  him  some  encouragement,  flew  into  such  a  violent 
passion  when  young  Fox  accidentally  set  his  foot  on  the 
side  of  a  flower-bed,  that  he  went  away  in  sorrow,  worse 
than  when  he  came. 

By  this  time  certain  thoughts,  which  before  had  been 
vague,  now  began  to  assume  a  definite  form  and  shape. 

1  William  Perm  says  of  him,  44  As  for  his  employment,  he  was  brought 
up  to  country  business,  and  took  most  delight  in  sheep,  and  was  very  skilful 
in  them,  an  employment  that  well  suited  his  mind  in  several  respects,  both 
for  its  innocency  and  solitude,  and  was  a  just  figure  of  his  after  ministry  and 
service." 


Very  interesting  is  it  to  note  the  gradual  manner  in  which 
great  truths  dawned  upon  him.  Among  the  very  first  of 
these  "  heavenly  openings/'  as  he  deemed  them,  one  is  thus 
recorded  by  him  :  "  As  I  was  walking  in  the  field  on  a  First- 
day  morning,  the  Lord  opened  to  me,  that  being  bred  at 
(  Oxford  and  Cambridge  was  not  enough  to  fit  and  qualify 
men  to  be  ministers  of  Christ/'  "And."  says  he.  in  his 
quaint  language,  "  I  stranged  at  it,  for  it  was  the  common 
belief  of  the  people  ;  but  I  saw  it  clearly,  and  was  satisfied, 
and  admired  the  goodness  of  the  Lord  who  had  opened  this 
thing  unto  me/'  At  another  time,  he  writes,  "  It  was 
opened  in  me  that  God,  who  made  the  world,  dwelleth  not 
in  temples  made  with  hands.  This  at  first  seemed  a  strange 
word,  .  .  .  but  the  Lord  showed  me  that  He  did  not 
dwell  in  temples  which  man  had  commanded  and  set  up,  but 
in  people's  hearts."  And  then,  rapidly  following  this,  came 
the  revelation.  "  *  There  is  an  anointing  within  man,  and 
God  will  teach  his  people  Himself.'  " 

Closely  allied  to  this,  if  not  identical  with  it,  was  opened 
to  his  view,  in  the  vale  of  Beavor,  "  how  that  every  man 
was  enlightened  by  the  Divine  light  of  Christ,  and  that  they 
who  believed  in  it  came  out  of  condemnation  and  came  to 
the  light  of  life,  and  became  the  children  of  it;  but  that 
they  that  hated  it  and  did  not  believe  in  it.  were  condemned 
by  it,  though  they  made  a  profession  of  Christ." 

Having  had  little  comfort  from  the  priests  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  dissenting 
people,  among  whom  he  found,  as  he  writes,  "  some  tender- 
ness "  but  as  I  had  forsaken  the  priests,  so  I  left  the 
separate  preachers,  for  I  saw  there  was  none  among  them 
that  could  speak  to  my  condition.  And  when  all  hope  in 
them  and  in  all  men  was  gone,  so  that  I  had  nothing  out- 
wardly to  help  me,  then,  oh,  then  !  I  heard  a  voice  which 
said,  there  is  One  even  Christ  Jesus,  which  can  speak  to  thy 
condition.  Then  the  Lord  did  let  me  see  why  there  was 
none  upon  the  earth  that  could  speak  to  my  condition, 
namely,  that  1  might  give  Him  all  the  glory." 


8- 


I  have  quoted  largely  George  Fox's  own  words,  because 
they  are  necessary  fully  to  understand  the  character  of  the 
man,  and  because  on  them  and  what  they  express,  hinged, 
as  it  were,  his  whole  subsequent  life,  his  teaching  and  his 
preaching.  "After  this/'  says  he,  "all  things  were  new, 
and  all  the  creation  gave  another  smell  to  me  than  before, 
beyond  what  words  can  utter."  And  now,  with  all  the 
earnestness  of  undoubting  conviction,  he  recognizes  fully  his 
call  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  his  fellow  men.  First  appear- 
ing as  such  in  the  year  1647,  when  but  twenty-three  years 
old,  his  progress  as  a  preacher  is  a  rapid  one.  Even  before 
the  organization  of  the  Society  of  Friends  as  such,  he 
travelled  largely  in  the  north  of  England,  and  found  tender- 
hearted people  who  heard  with  gladness  his  gospel  message, 
which  they  freely  owned,  and  to  which  they  found  an 
answer  in  their  hearts  and  enlightened  consciences. 

For  this  was  a  time,  if  ever  so  in  its  history,  that  the 
religious  mind  of  the  English  people  was  stirred  to  its 
very  depths.  The  execution  of  King  Charles,  the  rule  of 
Cromwell,  followed  by  his  death,  and  the  short-lived  pro- 
tectorate of  his  son,  soon  succeeded  by  the  restoration  of 
the  Stuarts,  had  produced  a  sense  of  insecurity  among  all 
the  people. 

To  this  was  added,  during  the  times  we  are  considering, 
the  prevalence  of  that  fearful  pestilence  known  as  the 
Plague.  It  is  at  such  a  time  as  this,  when  every  earthly 
prop  seems  to  be  insecure,  that  the  soul,  almost  in  despair, 
certainly  with  great  eagerness,  grasps  at  whatever  gives 
promise  of  real  support.  For  these  among  other  reasons 
was  it  that  so  many  of  the  people  heard  George  Fox's 
gospel  message,  and  many  of  them  gladly  received  it. 

And  now,  before  passing  further,  it  may  be  well  to  ask, 
what  was  this  gospel  message,  and  what  were  some  of  the 
religious  views  of  George  Fox  and  the  early  Friends  ? 

I  think  this  message  may  all  be  epitomized  in  his  own 
words :  "  I  saw  that  Christ  died  for  all  men  and  had  en- 
lightened all  men  and  women  with  his  divine  and  saving 


9 


light,  and  that  no  man  could  be  a  true  believer  but  who 
believed  in  it." 

I  have  said  that  his  whole  gospel  message  might  be  epito- 
mized in  these  words,  and  I  repeat  it :  but  it  will  be  seen 
that  few  as  they  arc,  these  two  propositions  cover  the  Avhole 
held  of  Christian  faith.  They  are,  however,  inseparable 
one  from  the  other,  and  George  Fox  did  not  separate  them. 
He  held  in  all  its  fulness  the  doctrine  of  the  propitiatory 
offering  of  Christ  en  Calvary:  and  he  recognized  in  all  its 
force,  the  doctrine  of  Christ  as  the  Light  that  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world. 

I  need  not  adduce  any  lengthened  evidence  to  prove  to 
this  audience  the  first  of  these  statements.  Its  truth  is  to 
be  found  all  the  way  through  his  Journal,  which  is  the 
reflex  of  his  faith  and  of  his  life. 

Very  early  in  his  history,  when  but  little  more  than 
twenty-one  years  old  he  records  that,  "'the  priest  of  Drayton 
asked  me  a  question,  viz.:  why  Christ  cried  out  on  the  cross, 
My  God.  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?  And  why 
He  said,  If  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me;  yet  not 
my  will,  but  thine  be  done?  And  I  told  him,"  says  Fox, 
"that  at  that  time  the  sins  of  mankind  were  upon  Him, 
and  their  iniquities  and  transgressions  with  which  he  was 
wounded,  which  He  was  to  bear,  and  to  be  an  offering  for 
them,  as  He  was  man:  but  died  not,  as  He  was  God.  And 
so  in  that  He  died  for  all  men,  and  tasted  death  for  every 
man,  He  was  an  offering  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." 
And  the  priest  said  it  wa>  a  very  good,  full  answer,  and  such 
an  one  as  he  had  not  heard. 

Another  record  in  his  Journal  reads  thus:  "When  in 
Darby  dungeon.  A.  I).  1651,  there  came  to  see  me  a  man 
from  Nottinghamshire,  a  souldier,  and  with  him  came  several 
others  :  and  in  discourse  this  person  said:  Your  faith  stands 
in  a  man  that  died  at  Jerusalem,  and  there  never  was  any  such 
thing.  I  was  exceedingly  grieved  to  hear  him  say  so,  and 
I  -aid  to  him  :  How!  did  not  Christ  suffer  without  the  gates 
of  Jerusalem  through  the  professing  Jews  and  Chief  Priests 


10 


and  Pilate  ?  And  he  denied  that  ever  Christ  suffered  there 
outwardly.  Then  I  asked  him  if  there  were  not  Jews  and 
Chief  Priests  and  Pilate  there  outwardly  ;  and  when  he  could 
not  deny  that,  I  told  him  as  certainly  as  there  was  a  Chief 
Priest  and  Jews  and  Pilate  there  outwardly,  so  certainly  was 
Christ  persecuted  by  them,  and  did  suffer  there  outwardly 
under  them.  Yet  from  this  man's  words  was  a  slander  raised 
upon  us,  that  the  Quakers  should  deny  Christ  that  suffered 
and  died  at  Jerusalem,  which  was  all  utterly  false,  and  the 
least  thought  of  it  never  entered  our  hearts ;  but  it  was  a 
mere  slander  cast  upon  us,  and  occasioned  by  this  person's 
words." 

This  simple  faith  of  his  early  youth  never  forsook  George 
Fox.  It  is  seen  all  through  the  pages  of  his  Journal,  and 
finds  its  strong  expression  in  that  remarkable  declaration  of 
faith  made  at  Barbadoes. 

This  faith,  I  repeat  it,  George  Fox  and  his  friends  held 
in  all  its  fulness  and  force ;  but  this  was  not  all  that  they 
held.  Not  only  does  George  Fox  say,  "  I  saw  that  Christ 
died  for  all  men,"  but  he  also  says,  "  I  saw  that  Christ  had 
enlightened  all  men  and  women  with  his  divine  and  saving 
light."  This  which  William  Penn  calls  the  characteristic 
doctrine  of  the  Friends,  now  appears  in  almost  every  sermon, 
epistle  and  paper  put  forth  by  George  Fox.  That  it  was 
thus  prominently  put  forward  was  doubtless  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  was  generally 
accepted  by  the  then  Christian  world,  and  although  the 
acceptance  of  it  was  mixed  up  with  error,  there  was,  rela- 
tively, but  little  necessity  for  especially  pressing  it  upon 
men's  attention  at  that  time.  But  this,  to  them,  new  doctrine, 
a  living,  present  Christ,  they  preached  everywhere,  and,  I 
may  add,  almost  everywhere  "  the  common  people  heard 
them  gladly."  For  to  these  people,  in  their  great  unrest, 
there  came  with  this  doctrine  of  direct  access  to  their  Saviour, 
a  sense  of  rest  and  peace  and  companionship,  for  which  they 
had  long  earnestly  yearned,  but  to  which  they  had  thus  far 
been  strangers.    No  wonder  that  the  people  heard  it  gladly! 


11 


No  wonder,  too,  that  there  soon  arose  that  fierce  spirit  of 
persecution  against  those  who  held  it,  taught  it,  and,  with 
and  by  it,  drew  away  so  many  from  their  old  forms  and 
places  of  worship. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  among  these  persecutors  there 
were  two  distinct  classes.  One  class  who  fully  believed  that 
these  Quakers  were  pestilent  fellows  who  would  turn  the 
world  upside  down,  and  who  honestly  thought  they  were 
doing  God  service  by  promptly  suppressing  them ;  and 
another  class  who  early  saw  how  much  of  truth  there  was 
in  these  principles,  and  how,  carried  to  their  full  develop- 
ment, they  might  forever  put  an  end  to  all  absolute  necessity 
for  pope,  for  priest,  for  preacher.  And  hence  with  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation,  as  it  were,  in  a  struggle  for  life 
itself,  they  strove  at  once  and  forever,  to  crush  them. 

And  yet  these  primitive  Friends  very  early  recognized 
the  aid  to  the  Church  of  rightly  qualified  ministers  of  the 
gospel.  While  they  believed  and  taught  that  this  Light 
shone  in  every  heart,  they  remembered  that  at  times  it 
shined  in  darkness,  and  the  darkness  comprehended  it  not. 
They  well  knew  that  there  was  a  vast  difference  in  degree 
between  its  feeble  flickering  in  some  hearts  and  the  full 
blaze  of  its  effulgence  in  others.  They  knew  that  with 
many  an  awakened  mind  in  the  first  dawnings  of  this  light, 
the  Christian's  step  was  often  an  uncertain  and  an  unsteady 
one,  and  that  as  with  the  Ethiopian  of  old,  whom  Philip 
met,  it  was  both  right  and  helpful  that  some  man  should 
guide  him. 

Out  of  this  doctrine  of  an  indwelling  Christ  came,  as  a 
natural  sequence,  all  their  distinctive  doctrines.  If  He  were 
in  every  heart, — if  men  had  in  them  the  Real  Presence,  it 
followed  that  all  mere  types  and  shadows  of  that  Real 
Presence  were  unnecessary.  This  doctrine,  if  accepted,  at 
once  did  away  with  all  need  for  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
of  the  Church,  as  it  is  called.  The  early  Quakers  recog- 
nized the  necessity  of  baptism,  but  it  was  a  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.    They  loved  to  partake  of  the  communion,  but 


12 


it  was  to  them  an  inward  and  spiritual  feast.  They  recog- 
nized the  value  of  a  rightly  ordained  ministry,  but  they 
taught  that  its  lessons  must  be  learned  in  a  higher  school 
than  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  and  that  having  been  freely 
received  they  must  be  freely  given. 

All  that  was  distinctive  in  their  views  respecting  the 
ministry  came  of  the  doctrine  we  have  been  considering, 
an  inward  revelation,  qualifying,  guiding,  directing  for  this 
service;  not  a  natural  principle  like  reason  or  conscience, 
capable  of  being  cultivated  by  individuals  themselves, 
influenced  by  their  surroundings,  moulded  by  their  edu- 
cation, but  a  direct  gift  to  their  souls,  unerring  in  its 
guidance,  infallible  in  its  teachings, — an  emanation  from 
God  himself. 

To  teach  is  one  thing,  to  preach  another,  and  it  is  only 
from  the  standpoint  of  what  constitute  the  qualifications 
for,  and  the  requirements  of  a  preacher,  that  their  views 
respecting  pecuniary  compensation  for  preaching  can  be 
rightly  understood.  By  years  of  careful  study  and  research 
good  men  may  make  themselves  familiar  with  great  Scrip- 
tural facts,  may  be  able  to  explain  parts  of  the  Bible  which 
to  many  minds  are  obscure,  may  be  helpful  in  many  ways 
to  others.  For  this  and  for  the  pastoral  services  required 
of  them,  the  care  of  the  sick,  the  visits  to  the  afflicted,  the 
general  oversight  of  the  flock,  engagements  may  be  made 
and  pecuniary  compensation  may  be  offered,  He  would  be 
a  bold  man,  indeed,  who  would  dare  to  say  that  such  teaching 
and  such  services  may  not  receive  the  Divine  blessing.  But 
these  early  Quakers  did  not  regard  this  as  preaching,  or 
these  as  the  qualifications  of  a  preacher,  who,  as  they 
believed,  could  only  preach  when  he  received  immediately 
the  Divine  authority  and  the  Divine  command,  which  latter 
he  could  no  more  disobey  than  he  could  presumptuously 
demand  the  former.  Hence  he  could  make  no  contract  with 
others,  or  engagement  to  preach  at  stated  times,  as  he  knew 
not  at  what  time  this  qualification  to  preach  might  be  given 
him,  or  when  it  might  be  withheld  ;  and  he  no  more  claimed 


13 


payment  for  this  which  he  gave  to  others,  but  which  had 
first  been  given  to  him,  than  did  the  disciples  of  old  demand 
money  of  the  multitude  who  were  fed  with  the  five  barley 
loaves  and  the  few  small  fishes,  which  owed  all  their  sus- 
taining virtue  to  Him  who  first  blessed  and  brake  the  bread 
and  handed  it  to  his  disciples ;  who  then,  but  not  till  then, 
handed  it  to  the  famishing  multitude. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  with  reference  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart,  that  the  whole  superstructure  of 
the  distinctive  doctrines  of  these  early  Friends  was  built  on 
this  foundation  :  but,  1  repeat  it,  this  foundation  itself,  was 
inseparably  connected  with  the  rock  on  which  it  rested,  and 
that  rock  was  Christ,  and  any  attempt  to  separate  this  foun- 
dation from  this  rock,  while  it  cannot  weaken  the  foundation, 
or  move  the  rock,  cannot  fail  to  put  in  jeopardy  the  building, 
and  to  endanger  him  who  attempts  it. 

The  Friends  very  early  bore  their  testimony  against 
all  swearing,  a  refusal  of  which  their  enemies  took  great 
advantage  in  those  troublous  times,  when  rulers  were  so 
often  changed,  tendering  them  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and 
because  they  would  not  take  it,  or  any  oath,  sending  them 
to  jail  as  persons  disaffected  and  dangerous  to  those  in 
power.  And  yet  surely  none  of  their  testimonies  had 
higher  authority  than  this  had.  The  command  of  our 
Saviour  is  so  emphatic,  "  SAvear  not  at  all,"  that  it  is  sur- 
prising it  should  ever  have  been  disregarded  by  Christians. 
Aside  from  this,  and  from  the  flippant  manner  in  which  it 
is  so  often  taken,  has  it  ever  occurred  to  you,  my  young 
friends,  what  a  dangerous  presumption  attaches  to  the  con- 
cluding words  of  the  legal  oath,  which  indeed  constitute  its 
very  essence,  the  words  "So  help  me  God,"  "so  (and  not 
otherwise,)  may  God  help  me." 

Can  there  be  a  more  dangerous  presumption  than  this, 
that  a  poor,  weak,  sinful  man,  whose  memory  may  be  treach- 
erous, whose  mind  may  be  confused,  whose  temptation  may 
overcome  him,  should  dare,  as  it  were,  to  bargain  with  the 
Almighty,  and  to  ask,  in  any  contingency  whatever,  to  be 


14 


cut  off  from  that  hope  and  help  which  he  always  needs? 
Surely  too,  he  must  have  a  low  standard  of  truth  in  every- 
day life  who  needs  such  an  imprecation  as  this  is  to  make 
him  tell  it  at  any  time.  We  owe  to  these  early  Friends  the 
substitution  of  the  simple  affirmation,  which  is  now  steadily 
and  surely  taking  the  place  of  the  legal  oath. 

To  the  early  testimony  of  the  Friends  against  all  wars  and 
fightings  may  be  traced  the  gradual  development  of  the 
sentiment  which  shows  itself  in  that  remarkable  event  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  the  recommendation,  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  to  his  legislators,  and  to  all 
Christian  rulers,  that  peaceful  arbitration  should  take  the 
place  of  the  bloody  arbitrament  of  the  sword. 

The  early  Friends  always  regarded,  and  never  hesitated 
to  speak  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  words  of  God,  and 
as  a  precious  gift  from  Him ;  but  they  did  not  apply  to  the 
gift  the  name  which  belonged  to  the  Giver,  reserving  that 
name  for  "  the  Word  "  which  "  was  in  the  beginning ;  was 
with  God,  and  was  God."  Large  opportunities  for  observa- 
tion have  shown  me  that  there  is  no  body  of  Christians 
who  hold  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  a  truer  and  more  affec- 
tionate regard  than  do  the  Friends.  While  some  good 
people,  not  all  by  any  means,  are  content  to  hear  them  read 
in  places  of  public  worship,  the  religious  Society  of  Friends 
enjoins  its  older  members  both  to  read  the  Holy  Scriptures 
frequently  themselves,  and  to  train  up  their  children  fre- 
quently to  read  them  also. 

A  testimony  which  gave  the  early  Friends  much  trouble 
and,  indirectly  at  least,  sent  many  of  them  to  prison,  was 
their  refusal  to  take  off  the  hat  in  deference  to  the  presence 
of  others,  or  to  the  place  where  they  then  wTere.  Doubtless 
it  lias  often  suggested  itself  to  you,  as  it  often  has  to  me, 
that  as  the  hat  was  made  to  protect  the  head  from  the  heat 
or  the  cold,  it  was  very  unnecessary  for  them  to  seem  to 
court  punishment  by  wearing  it  in  the  house.  William 
I  Vim  says  "  religion  makes  no  man  discourteous,  uncivil  or 
unkind." 


15 


The  early  Friends,  however,  were  among  the  first  to  pro- 
claim the  equality  of  men,  and  they  regarded  the  bowing 
of  the  body  and  the  taking  off  the  hat  to  their  fellows  as 
inconsistent  with  this  great  principle.  But  during  all  rightly 
authorized  prayer  in  their  religious  meetings,  in  which  each 
member  is  regarded  as  participating,  they  devoutly  took  off 
the  hat,  and  remained  uncovered.  They  could  not  in  con- 
science they  thought,  pay  the  same  mark  of  respect  to  man 
that  they  did  to  God.  For  the  wearing  of  the  hat  had  an 
especial  significance  in  those  days.  The  historian  Bancroft, 
whose  associations  certainly  were  not  such  as  to  prepossess 
him  in  favor  of  any  of  the  peculiar  practices  of  the  early 
Friends,  thus  writes  on  this  subject :  "  The  Quaker  bows  to 
God  and  not  to  his  fellow-man.  The  feudal  nobility  [in 
the  17th  Century]  still  nourished  its  pride.  The  Quakers 
knew  that  the  hat  was  the  symbol  of  enfranchisement  [full 
citizenship],  and  was  worn  by  the  Xorman  nobility  in  the 
presence  of  the  King  as  a  proclamation  that  they  Avere  peers 
of  the  realm,  equal  with  their  sovereign.  When  Cromwell 
assumed  the  power  of  a  prince  he  covered  his  head,  all  the 
others  remaining  uncovered.  After  more  than  a  century 
and  a  quarter,  when  in  the  first  great  scene  of  the  French 
revolution,  at  the  opening  of  the  States  General,  the  clergy 
and  the  nobility,  according  to  established  privilege,  had, 
like  the  King,  put  on  their  square  caps  and  plumed  bonnets, 
the  representatives  of  the  commons,  imitating  the  Quaker 
precedent,  covered  their  heads  also  with  their  hats,  that  had 
neither  plumes  nor  ribands;  thus  explaining  to  the  Bourbons 
the  meaning  of  the  Quaker  symbol." 

And  now  there  came  to  George  Fox  and  his  associates 
that  fierce  storm  of  persecution  which,  even  though  we  read 
the  literal  account,  we  fail,  I  think,  to  comprehend  the  full 
extent  of  it.  By  it,  in  the  language  of  the  historian  I  have 
quoted,  "  everywhere  and  for  long  wearisome  years,  they 
were  exposed  to  perpetual  dangers  and  griefs.  They  were 
whipped,  crowded  into  jails  among  felons,  kept  in  dungeons 
foul  and  gloomy,  fined,  exiled,  sold  into  colonial  bondage. 


16 


Imprisoned  in  winter,  without  fire,  they  perished  from  the 
cold.  Some  were  victims  to  the  barbarous  cruelty  of  the 
jailers  ;  twice  George  Fox  narrowly  escaped  death.  They 
braved  every  danger  to  continue  their  assemblies.  Haled 
out  by  violence  they  returned  ;  when  their  meeting-houses 
were  torn  down  they  gathered  openly  on  the  ruins.  They 
could  not  be  dissolved  by  armed  men,  and  when  their 
opposers  took  shovels  to  throw  rubbish  on  them  they  stood 
close  together,  willing  to  be  buried  alive  witnessing  for  the 
Lord." 

One  whose  eloquent  voice  is  now  stilled  in  death,  the  late 
Henry  Armitt  Brown,  has  quoted,  in  his  Burlington  address, 
that  wonderful  event  in  their  early  history  when,  in  one  of 
the  darkest  hours,  their  comrades  lay  languishing  in  prison, 
the  Friends  marched  in  procession  to  Westminster  Hall,  to 
offer  themselves  to  Parliament  as  hostages  for  their  brethren. 
"  In  love  to  our  brethren,  say  they,  who  lie  in  Prisons,  in 
dungeons  and  in  many  fetters  and  irons,  and  have  been 
cruelly  beat  by  the  cruel  jailers  .  .  and  many  who  be  sick 
and  weak  in  Prison  and  on  straw  .  .  we  do  offer  up  our 
bodies  and  selves  to  you  for  you  to  put  us  as  lambs  into  the 
same  dungeons,  and  do  stand  ready  a  sacrifice  for  to  go  into 
their  places  that  they  may  go  forth  and  not  die." 

And  yet  this  is  by  no  means  an  isolated  instance  of  its 
kind  in  their  history.  When  George  Fox  lay  in  his  cheer- 
less prison,  one  of  the  Friends  went  to  Oliver  Cromwell 
and  offered  to  lie  there  in  his  stead.  Then  it  was  that 
Cromwell,  struck  by  this  act  of  friendship,  looked  around 
on  his  followers  and  said,  "  Which  of  you  would  do  as  much 
for  me  if  I  were  in  the  same  condition?"  In  Wales, 
Richard  Da  vies  offered  himself  in  the  place  of  his  younger 
friend  Thomas  Ellis.  So  deeply  affected  were  some  of  the 
magistrates  by  this  unselfish  act,  that  they  became  Friends 
themselves,  and  persecution  ceased  in  that  immediate  neigh- 
borhood. 

But  perhaps  the  most  touching  instance  of  self-sacrifice 
of  this  kind  was  seen  in  the  case  of  James  Parnell,  "  a 


17 


little  lad,"  as  George  Fox  calls  him,1  who  was  imprisoned 
when  but  eighteen  years  old  in  Colchester  Castle.  An  in- 
genuity of  torture,  worthy  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  was 
devised  by  his  jailers,  which  resulted  in  a  serious  fall,  by 
which  he  received  several  severe  bodily  injuries.  Unable 
to  reach  his  room,  he  was  now  put  into  a  cell  so  small  that 
it  was  called  the  oven,  with  no  access  for  light  or  air  but  by 
the  open  door.  Tenderly  commiserating  the  sufferings  of 
this  youthful  martyr,  three  of  his  friends  went  to  his  jailer 
and  begged  that  the  poor  lad  might  go  to  their  home  until 
he  had  recovered  from  his  injuries,  offering  to  lie  in  this 
wretched  hole,  body  for  body,  in  his  place,  and  voluntarily 
engaging  to  be  bound  under  penalty  of  a  considerable 
sum  of  money  if  they  failed  to  take  his  place. 

The  rapid  spread  of  the  principles  of  the  religious  Society 
of  Friends  was  not  confined  to  England.  In  the  year 
1653  one  Morgan  Floyd,  "  a  priest  of  Wrexham,"  North 
Wales,  sent  two  of  his  congregation  to  the  north  of  England 
to  inquire  concerning  Friends  and,  as  George  Fox  says,  "to 
trie  us  and  bring  home  an  account  of  us."  Both  of  these 
Welshmen  "  were  convinced  of  the  Truth,"  and  coming  to 
scoff  remained  to  pray.  They  stayed  some  time  with  Friends, 
and  then  went  home,  where  one  of  them  returned,  after  a 
time,  to  his  old  faith,  but  the  other  remained  steadfast  to  his 
convictions,  and  became  a  valiant  preacher  among  Friends. 
There  was  much  in  the  simplicity  of  Quakerism  to  commend 
it  to  the  Welsh,  who  are  a  brave,  thoughtful  and  indepen- 
dent people,  and  John  ap  John  soon  found  himself  in  the 
midst  of  an  intelligent,  earnest  company  of  fellow  believers. 
They  were,  as  a  rule,  men  of  good  education,  and  many  of 
them  of  distinguished  ancestry.  Prominent  among  them 
were  Charles  and  Thomas  Lloyd,  of  Dolobran,  John  ap 
Thomas,  of  Llaithgwm,  Hugh  Roberts,  James  Lewis,  Richard 

1  George  Fox  says :  "  When  I  was  in  the  dungeon  at  Carlisle  one  James 
Parnell,  a  little  iad  of  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  came  to  see  me  and  was 
convinced,  and  the  Lord  quickly  made  him  a  powerful  minister  of  the 
Word  of  life,  and  many  were  turned  to  Christ  by  him." 


18 


Davies  and  others.  They  bore  the  persecution  to  which  they 
were  subjected  with  a  courage  as  great  as  that  with  which 
their  fathers  had  encountered  the  perils  of  the  battle-field. 
I  have  elsewhere1  spoken  fully  respecting  them,  and  merely 
pause  for  a  moment  to  notice  them  here,  because  of  the  large 
part  they  took  in  the  settlement  of  the  Province  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

The  north  of  England,  which  was  the  home  of  Fox  and 
of  so  many  of  his  companions,  was  too  near  the  border  of 
Scotland  long  to  leave  the  Scottish  people  in  ignorance  of 
the  new  and  strange  faith  which  was  so  rapidly  spreading 
itself  among  the  people.  Prominent  among  the  early  con- 
verts were  Alexander  Jaffray,  who  had  been  Chief  Magis- 
trate of  Aberdeen,  Patrick  Livingstone,  through  whose 
instrumentality  large  numbers  were  added  to  the  church  in 
Scotland,  John,  nineteenth  Baron  of  Swintoun,  an  ancestor 
of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  David  Barclay  of  Ury,  and  his  son 
Robert.  William  Penn,  in  his  "  Rise  and  Progress  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,"  says  that  the  primitive  Friends  were 
not  great  and  learned  in  the  esteem  of  this  world,  "for  then 
they  had  not  wanted  followers  upon  their  own  credit  and 
authority."  Yet  among  them,  as  among  the  early  Christians, 
there  were  not  wanting  men  learned  in  the  schools,  who 
showed  then,  as  St.  Luke  and  St.  Paul  had  done  before,  that 
intellectual  culture,  under  Divine  guidance,  may  become  a 
potent  factor  for  good.  Where,  indeed,  in  the  early  history 
of  any  church,  can  there  be  found  three  men  the  equals  in 
native  talent,  in  profound  scholarship,  in  graceful  authorship, 
of  Charles  Lloyd  of  Wales,  William  Penn  of  England,  and 
Robert  Barclay  of  Scotland? 

We  all  know  how  bitterly  opposed  to  his  son's  new  faith 
was  Sir  William  Penn.  It  was  not  thus  with  the  father  of 
Robert  Barclay.  A  brave  soldier  under  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
a  dashing  cavalry  officer  of  the  civil  wars,  allied  by  marriage 
with  the  royal  house  of  Stuart,  David  Barclay,  while  a  pris- 


1  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  vol.  4,  p.  301,  et  seq. 


19 


oner  of  State  in  Edinburgh  Castle,  became  a  Friend.  His 
son  had  been  sent  to  France,  where  under  the  care  of  his 
uncle,  the  rector  of  the  Scottish  College  there,  he  had  made 
great  progress  in  his  studies,  and  had  begun  to  look  with 
some  favor  on  the  Church  of  Rome. 

At  his  mother's  request.  Robert  Barclay  was  recalled  to 
Scotland,  where  he  soon  after  became  a  Friend,  and.  a  little 
later,  i>sued  that  remarkable  doctrinal  thesis,  so  well  known 
to  you  as  Barclay's  Apology.  This  essay  was  first  written 
in  the  Latin  language,  an  illustration  of  the  wonderful 
erudition  of  its  young  author — he  was  then  but  twenty-eight 
years  old.  It  has  passed  through  more  than  twenty  editions, 
and.  as  i>  acknowledged  even  by  those  who  do  not  agree  with 
it,  it  has  never  had  its  propositions  successfully  refuted. 

In  the  English  Channel,  about  fifteen  miles  from  France, 
is  a  little  island  known  as  Jersey,  containing  in  all  an  area 
of  about  forty-five  square  miles.  During  the  civil  wars  of 
England,  King  Charles  found  safety  in  its  fortress,  and  Sir 
George  Carteret  successfully  defended  it  from  the  enemy. 
Many  years  later,  when  Sir  George  became  possessed  of  the 
tract  of  land  which  lies  directly  east  of  us,  in  honor  of  his 
brave  defence  of  the  little  island  in  the  Channel,  this  terri- 
tory was  named  New  Jersey,  the  name  it  still  retains.  The 
eastern  part  was  settled  early,  and  among  these  early  settlers 
were  several  gentlemen  of  Scottish  nativity. 

In  the  year  1682  Robert  Barclay  was  appointed  Governor 
of  East  Jersey.  Says  a  writer:  "  Barclay  united  every  quali- 
fication for  the  office,  being  equally  capable  of  excelling  in 
wordly  matters  as  in  those  of  a  spiritual  nature,  and  possess- 
ing great  influence,  not  only  among  the  Quakers,  but  also 
with  the  King  and  Duke  of  York.  As  if  his  name  were  a 
tower  of  strength,  he  was  not  required  to  visit  East  Jersey 
in  person,  being  permitted  to  exercise  his  authority  by 
deputy.  This  appointment  was  for  life,  but  his  successors 
were  to  serve  but  for  three  years."  Governor  Barclay  held 
this  appointment  until  his  death,  which  occurred  Eighth 
month  3d,  1690,  when  he  was  but  forty-two  years  old. 


20 


Such  a  life — so  brief  in  its  duration,  and  yet  so  full  of 
great  results,  irresistibly  recalls  the  words  of  the  wise  King 
Solomon,  "Honorable  age  is  not  that  which  standeth  in  length 
of  time,  nor  that  is  measured  by  number  of  years.  But  wisdom 
is  the  grey  hair  unto  men,  and  an  unspotted  life  is  old  age. 
He  being  made  perfect  in  a  short  time,  fulfilled  a  long  time." 

Notwithstanding  his  high  social  position,  the  bravery  with 
which  he  had  fought  as  a  soldier,  his  learning,  piety  and 
worth,  David  Barclay  was  often  the  subject  of  persecution, 
imprisonment  and  insult.  One  such  occurence  has  been 
made  by  our  poet,  Whittier,  the  theme  of  what  I  have 
always  regarded  as  one  of  his  ablest  poems,  and  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  pen-pictures  I  have  ever  met  with.  Perhaps 
you  will  bear  with  me  while  I  read  some  verses  of  the  poem, 
doubtless  familiar  to  many  of  you. 

"  Up  the  street  of  Aberdeen, 
By  the  kirk  and  college  green, 

Rode  the  laird  of  Ury ; 
Close  behind  him — close  beside, 
Foul  of  mouth  and  evil-eyed, 
Pressed  the  mob  in  fury. 

"  Flouted  him  the  drunken  churl, 
Jeered  at  him  the  serving-girl, 

Prompt  to  please  her  master  ; 
And  the  begging  carlin,  late 
Fed  and  clothed  at  Ury's  gate, 

Cursed  him  as  he  passed  her. 

"  Yet,  with  calm  and  stately  mien, 
Up  the  street  of  Aberdeen 

Came  he,  slowly  riding ; 
And,  to  all  he  saw  and  heard. 
Answering  not  with  bitter  word, 

Turning  not  for  chiding. 

"  Came  a  troop,  with  broadswords  swinging, 
Bits  and  bridles  sharply  ringing, 

Loose  and  free  and  froward  ; 
Quoth  the  foremost,  '  Ride  him  down  ! 
Push  him  !  prick  him  !  through  the  town 

Drive  the  Quaker  coward  ! ' 


21 


"  But.  from  out  the  thickening  crowd, 
Cried  a  sudden  voice  and  loud : 

'  Barclay  !  ho  !  a  Barclay  ! ' 
And  the  old  man  at  his  side, 
Saw  a  comrade,  battle  tried, 

Scarred  and  sunburned  darkly  ; 

"  Who,  with  ready  weapon  bare, 
Fronting  to  the  troopers  there, 

Cried  aloud,  '  God  save  us  ! 
Call  ye  coward  him  who  stood 
Ankle-deep  in  Lutzen's  blood, 

With  the  brave  Gustavus  ?  ' 

••  •  Nay,  I  do  not  need  thy  sword, 
Comrade  mine,"  said  Dry's  lord  ; 

'  Put  it  up  I  pray  thee  ; 
Passive  to  His  holy  will, 
Trust  I  in  my  Master  still, 

Even  though  He  slay  me.' 

"  1  Pledges  of  thy  love  and  faith, 
Proved  on  many  a  field  of  death, 

Not  by  me  are  needed.' 
Marvelled  much  that  henchman  bold. 
That  his  laird,  so  stout  of  old 
Xow  so  meekly  pleaded. 

••  1  Woe's  the  day,'  he  sadly  said, 
With  a  slowly  shaking  head, 

And  a  look  of  pity, 
'  Ury's  honest  laird  reviled, 
Mock  of  knave,  and  sport  of  child, 

In  his  own  good  city  ! ' 

•  Speak  the  word — and,  master  mine, 
As  we  charged  on  Tilly's  line, 

And  his  Walloon  lancers, 
Smiting  through  their  midst,  we'll  teach 
Civil  look  and  decent  speech, 

To  these  boyish  prancers  ! ' 

'•  •  Marvel  not,  my  ancient  friend, 
Like  beginning,  like  the  end,' 

Quoth  the  laird  of  Ury  ; 
'  Is  the  sinful  servant  more 
Than  his  gracious  Lord  who  bore 

Bonds  and  stripes  in  Jewry  ? 


22 


"  '  Give  me  joy,  that  in  His  name, 
I  can  bear  with  patient  frame, 

All  these  vain  ones  offer  ; 
While  for  them  He  snrfereth  long, 
Shall  I  answer  wrong  with  wrong, 

Scoffing  with  the  scoffer  ? 

"  'Hard  to  feel  the  stranger's  scoff; 
Hard  the  old  friends  falling  off; 

Hard  to  learn  forgiving  ; 
But  the  Lord  his  own  rewards. 
And  his  love  with  theirs  accords, 

Warm  and  fresh  and  living. 

"  '  Through  this  dark  and  stormy  night, 
Faith  beholds  a  feeble  light 

Up  the  blackness  streaking  : 
Knowing  God's  own  time  is  best, 
In  a  patient  hope  I  rest, 

For  the  full  day  breaking." 

"  So  the  Laird  of  Ury  said, 
Turning  slow  his  horse's  head 

Towards  the  Tolbooth  prison  : 
Where,  through  iron  grates,  he  heard 
Poor  disciples  of  the  Word 

Preach  of  Christ  arisen." 

As  Philadelphians  we  are  so  accustomed  to  regard  our 
Commonwealth  as  the  especial  home  of  Quakerism  in  the 
new  world,  that  we  are  prone  to  forget  that  long  before  Wil- 
liam Peun  landed  on  these  shores,  various  members  of  the 
Religious  Society  of  Friends  had  emigrated  to  America ;  that 
meetings  for  worship,  and  even  Yearly  Meetings  of  consider- 
able numbers  were  held  in  New  England,  in  Maryland  and 
elsewhere.  So  early  as  1655,  two  women  Friends,  Mary 
Fisher  and  Anne  Austin,  visited  Barbadoes,  and,  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  were  in  New  England,  where  they  were  soon 
followed  by  eight  other  ministering  Friends.  There  were 
many  Friends  settled  in  the  vicinity  of  New  Amsterdam,  on 
Long  Island,  and  in  East  Jersey,  and  in  the  year  1677,  the 
ship  Kent  landed  a  goodly  company  of  Friends  at  Chygoes 


23 


Island,  where  they  founded  what  is  now  the  ancient  and 
honorable  city  of  Burlington.  I  mention  these  facts  that 
we  Philadelphians  may  not  be  presumptuous,  and  because  it 
explains  the  concern  which  impelled  George  Fox,  in  the 
year  1671,  to  go  beyond  the  seas  and  visit  the  plantations  in 
America.  I  cannot  but  regard  this  visit,  occurring  when  it 
did,  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of  missionary 
labor  of  which  there  is  any  record. 

It  was  during  a  little  lull  in  the  fierceness  of  that  perse- 
cution from  which  he  and  his  friends  had  so  greatly  suffered, 
that  George  Fox  wrote  to  his  wife,  who  but  a  short  time 
before  had  been  released  from  prison,  that,  in  the  words  I 
have  already  quoted,  it  was  laid  upon  him  of  the  Lord  to  go 
beyond  the  seas  and  visit  the  plantations  in  America,  and 
asking  her  to  meet  him  in  London. 

Surely  if  ever  there  was  a  time  in  George  Fox's  life  when 
the  temptation  to  rest  and  ease  presented  itself,  it  was  at  this 
time.  His  wife  was  just  restored  to  her  liberty  and  to  her 
estates  ;  his  own  health  was  greatly  shattered  and  sadly 
needing  care  and  good  nursing ;  persecution  was  abated, 
and  every  tiling  conspired  to  induce  him  to  remain  in  his 
comfortable  home  at  Swarthmore.  But  George  Fox  was  not 
such  a  man.  It  was  enough  for  him  to  know  that  it  was 
laid  on  him  of  the  Lord  to  go,  and  all  the  dangers  of  the 
way,  and  all  the  comforts  of  his  home  were  alike  disre- 
garded. 

On  the  12th  day  of  Sixth  month,  1671,  in  the  yacht 
Industry,  Captain  Thomas  Foster,  in  company  with  several 
Friends,  and  having  in  all  about  fifty  passengers,  he  sailed 
for  Barbadoes,  a  British  island  of  the  West  Indies,  with 
which  there  then  was  a  considerable  commerce  with  Eng- 
land, and  later,  a  brisk  trade  carried  on  by  the  American 
colonies. 

In  his  ode  to  his  friend  Virgil,  the  poet,  Horace  says  that 
he  was  a  brave  man  who  first  dared  to  commit  his  fragile 
bark  to  the  sea;  but  surely  he  was  a  braver  man  who  dared 
trust  himself,  at  that  time,  on  the  Atlantic,  which  then  had 


24 


added  to  the  ordinary  risks  of  ocean  travel,  the  dangers  of  a 
sea  infested  with  pirates  from  the  Barbary  coast. 

Jnst  such  a  danger  the  yacht  Industry  encountered ;  for 
when  they  had  been  at  sea  three  weeks,  they  espied  what 
proved  to  be  a  man-of-war  from  the  Barbary  coast  bearing 
down  upon  them  and  soon  giving  them  chase.  The  passen- 
gers generally  were  much  frightened ;  but,  writes  Fox, 
"  Friends  were  well  satisfied,  having  faith  in  God,  and  no 
fear  upon  their  spirits."  The  pirate  continued  the  chase 
until  sun-down,  making  rapidly  towards  them.  At  sunset 
the  Industry  altered  her  course,  hoping  to  mislead,  but  the 
pirate  soon  altered  his  also  and  gained  still  more  on  her. 
Then  the  captain,  remembering  the  voyage  of  another  man 
of  God,  and  profiting  by  the  lesson,  went  to  George  Fox's 
cabin  and  asked  what  he  should  do,  for,  said  he,  "  if  the 
mariners  had  taken  Paul's  counsel  they  had  not  come  to  the 
danger  they  did."  "I  told  him,"  writes  Fox,  "that  it  was  a 
trial  of  faith,  and,  therefore,  the  Lord  was  to  be  waited  on 
for  counsel.  So,  retiring  in  spirit,  the  Lord  showed  me  that 
his  life  and  power  was  placed  between  us  and  the  ship  that 
pursued  us.  I  told  this  to  the  master  and  the  rest,  and 
that  the  best  way  was  to  tack  about  and  steer  on  our  right 
course.  I  wished  them  also  to  put  out  all  their  candles  but 
those  that  they  steered  by,  and  to  speak  to  all  the  passengers 
to  be  still  and  quiet.  About  the  eleventh  hour  of  the  night, 
the  watch  called  and  said  they  were  just  upon  us.  This 
disquieted  some  of  the  passengers,  whereupon  I  sat  up  in 
my  cabbin,  and  looking  through  the  port  hole,  the  moon 
being  not  quite  down,  I  saw  them  very  near  us.  I  was  get- 
ting up  to  go  out  of  the  cabbin,  but  remembering  the  word 
of  the  Lord,  that  his  life  and  power  was  placed  between 
them  and  us,  I  lay  down  again.  .  .  .  By  this  time  the 
moon  was  quite  gone  down,  and  then  a  fresh  gale  arose,  and 
the  Lord  hid  us  from  them,  and  we  sailed  briskly  on  and 
saw  them  no  more." 

On  the  third  of  Eighth  month  they  arrived  at  Barbadoes, 
after  a,  voyage  of  nearly  two  months.    George  Fox  was  a 


very  feeble  and  ill  man  when  he  landed,  his  illness  lasting  for 
about  three  weeks.  But  feeble  as  he  was,  he  was  not  idle, 
but  gave,  from  his  sick  chamber,  much  advice  respecting 
the  discipline  of  the  Church.  One  of  the  subjects  under 
his  care  while  in  Barbadoes,  is  especially  noteworthy,  as 
showing  that  the  founder  of  our  Religious  Society  early  saw 
the  evils  of  negro  slavery,  and  was  among  the  first  to  sug- 
gest a  remedy,  which,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  later 
was  adopted  by  the  British  Government,  lie  writes:  "As 
to  their  blacks  or  negroes,  I  desired  them  to  train  them  up 
in  the  fear  of  God,  as  well  them  that  were  bought  with 
their  money  as  them  that  were  born  in  their  families,  that 
all  might  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  Lord.  1  desired  also 
that  they  would  cause  their  overseers  to  deal  mildly  and 
gently  with  their  negroes,  and  not  use  any  cruelty  towards 
them,  as  the  manner  of  some  hath  been,  and  that,  after 
certain  years  of  servitude,  they  would  set  them  free." 

This,  it  will  be  noticed,  was  in  the  year  1671,  seventeen 
years  before  Pastorius  and  the  Germantown  Friends  had 
issued  their  famous  testimony  against  slavery. 

Barbadoes  proved  to  be  a  very  hospitable  shore  for  George 
Fox  and  his  friends,  the  Governor  of  the  island  receiving 
them  very  kindly  at  his  own  home.  All  classes  of  people 
came  to  their  meetings,  which  were  so  large  that  at  last 
their  adversaries  endeavored  to  defame  Friends  with  many 
false  and  scandalous  reports;  "whereupon,"  says  Fox,  "  I 
with  some  other  Friends,  drew  up  a  paper  to  go  forth  in  the 
name  of  the  people  called  Quakers,  for  the  clearing  Truth 
and  Friends  from  those  false  reports." 

This  remarkable  paper,  which  constitutes  one  of  the 
fullest  and  clearest  expositions  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Religious  Society  of  Friends,  has,  on  another  occasion,  been 
quoted  by  me.1  It  gives  the  strongest  denial  to  many 
slanders  which  had  then,  and  have  since,  been  circulated 
respecting  the  faith  of  the  Friends,  especially,  in  Fox's  own 


1  See  Philadelphia  Friend,  Vol.  54,  p.  218. 


26 


words,  "  with  reference  to  the  charge  that  they  do  deny  God 
and  Christ  Jesus  and  the  Scriptures  of  Truth."  It  is 
couched  in  such  clear,  unequivocal  language,  that  there  can 
be  no  mistaking  its  meaning,  and  I  strongly  commend  it  to 
the  careful  perusal  of  such  of  my  audience  as  may  not  be 
familiar  with  it. 

After  three  months  in  Barbadoes,  and  seven  weeks  in 
Jamaica,  George  Fox  and  his  companions  set  sail  for  Mary- 
land, which  they  reached  after  a  difficult  and  pretty  danger- 
ous passage  of  between  six  and  seven  weeks. 

George  Fox  gives  an  interesting  account  of  his  travels  on 
the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland.  Of  one  of  his  meetings  he 
says  :  "  It  Avas  upon  me  from  the  Lord  to  send  to  the  Indian 
emperour  and  his  kings  to  come  to  the  meeting.  The 
emperour  came,  but  his  kings,  lying  further  off,  could  not 
reach  thither  time  enough.  They  came  later,  and  we  had 
in  the  evening  two  good  opportunities  with  them,  and  they 
heard  the  word  of  the  Lord  willingly,  and  did  confess  to  it, 
and  carried  themselves  very  courteously  and  lovingly." 
This,  I  suspect,  was  one  of  the  very  earliest  conferences  of 
the  Indians  and  the  Quakers. 

And  now  began  the  journey  by  land  of  George  Fox  and 
his  companions  to  New  England ;  as  he  says:  " A  tedious 
journey  through  the  woods  and  wilderness ;  over  bogs  and 
great  rivers."  I  cannot  do  more  than  hurriedly  notice  these 
journeyings, — how  rivers  were  forded  ;  how  the  weaker  ones 
of  his  little  party  were  fain  to  fall  short  and  lie  in  the  woods 
all  night  long;  how  by  hard  riding,  Fox  and  one  or  two 
others  got  to  "a  Dutch  town  called  New  Castle,"  how 
departing  hence,  they  got  over  the  river  Delaware,  "not 
without  danger  to  some  of  our  lives;"  how  once  over,  "we 
had  to  get  new  guides,  who  were  hard  to  get,  and  very 
chargeable."  "Then,"  says  Fox,  "we  had  that  wilderness 
country  to  pass  through,  which  is  since  called  West  Jersey, 
(this,  bear  in  mind,  was  in  the  year  1672)  which  was  not 
then  inhabited  by  English,  so  that  we  have  travelled  a  whole 
day  together  without  seeing  man  or  woman,  horse  or  dwelling- 


27 


place,  and  sometimes  Ave  lay  in  the  woods  by  a  fire,  and  some- 
times in  the  Indians'  wigwams  or  houses."  Wonderful  is  it 
to  note  how  these  simple  savages  kindly  received  and  cared 
for  this  man  of  God,  who  never  failed  to  tell  them,  when  he 
could  do  so,  that  Christ  died  for  all  men,  for  their  sins  as 
well  as  for  others,  and  that  He  had  enlightened  them  as 
well  as  other-. 

Coming  to  Middletown,  an  English  plantation  in  East 
Jersey,  they  were  met  by  Richard  Hartshorn,  a  Friend,  for- 
merly of  London,  "  who  received  us  gladly  to  his  house,'' 
"where  we  refreshed  ourselve-,  for  we  were  weary;  and 
then  he  carried  us  and  our  horses  in  his  own  boat  over  a 
great  river,  and  set  us  upon  Long  Island."  The  day  follow- 
ing they  were  at  Oyster  Bay,  where  they  attended  the  Half- 
Year's  Meeting,  and  where  they  had  "publick  meetings  for 
worship,  to  which  the  people  of  the  world  of  all  sorts  might 
and  did  come."  Some  time  later,  George  Fox  went  to  Rhode 
Island,  where  he  was  kindly  received  by  all  classes,  and 
where  he  attended  Xew  England  Yearly  Meeting.  At 
Xarragansett  they  made  so  favorable  an  impression  that,  to 
use  Fox's  words  again,  "  one  of  the  magistrates  said,  if  they 
had  money  enough  they  would  hire  me  to  be  their  minister." 
"This,"  he  adds,  ''was  because  they  did  not  know  us  and 
our  principles.  But  when  I  heard  it,  I  said  it  was  time  for 
me  to  be  gone,  for  if  their  eye  was  so  much  to  me,  or  to  any 
of  us.  they  would  not  come  to  their  own  teacher.  .  .  for 
this  thing  had  spoiled  many  by  hindering  them  from 
improving  their  own  talents,  whereas  our  labour  is  to  bring 
every  one  to  his  own  teacher  in  himself." 

Moving  southward,  George  Fox  and  his  company,  often- 
times in  great  peril  and  amid  many  difficulties,  passed  on, 
with  their  Indian  guides,  by  the  shore  of  the  Delaware, 
until  they  reached  Xew  Castle,  where  they  were  kindly 
received  by  the  Governor,  and  where  they  had  the  first 
Friends'  meeting  ever  held  there. 

Thence  their  journey  lay  through  Maryland,  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina, — wading  through  deep  swamps,  sleeping  in 


28 


the  woods,  often  ill,  and  wet  and  cold.  But  amid  all  this 
hunger  and  cold  and  wet,  his  boat  overturned,  a  part  of  his 
luggage  lost,  his  companions  at  times  ready  to  give  up,  the 
heart  of  George  Fox  never  failed  him.  In  the  darkest 
hours  of  his  journey ings,  the  Light  which  in  his  youth  had 
sinned  on  his  path  in  the  vale  of  Beavor,  shone  on  his  path- 
way still.  It  is  remarkable  how,  amid  all  his  difficulties, 
George  Fox  kept,  as  he  carefully  did,  a  Journal  of  his 
travels,  which  has  been  preserved  to  the  present  day. 

On  the  twenty-first  of  Third  month,  1673,  "  finding  our " 
spirits  clear  of  these  parts,"  George  Fox  and  his  friends  set 
sail  for  England,  where  they  arrived  Fourth  month  28th, 
1073. 

At  Bristol  George  Fox  was  met  by  his  wife  and  her  chil- 
dren. A  little  later  came  William  Penn,  and  here  and  then 
George  Fox  and  he  held  long  conferences  respecting  the  new 
world,  towards  whose  shores  Penn's  eyes  had  long  been 
turned,  and  where,  in  less  than  ten  years,  he  was  in  person 
to  found  a  Province. 

George  Fox  never  forgot  his  visit  to  America,  or  the 
friends  he  met  and  made  there,  oeventeen  years  later  he, 
who  had  three  days  before  preached  with  great  force  and 
fervency,  lay  on  his  bed  of  death,  in  the  simple  language  of 
his  biographer,  "  in  much  contentment  and  peace,  and  very 
sensible  to  the  last."  The  fear  of  death  had  long  been 
taken  from  him,  and  his  last  thoughts  were  for  the  living. 
"  All  is  well,"  said  the  dying  man  ;  "  the  seed  of  God 
reigns  over  all,  and  over  death  itself!"  and  then,  as  though 
he  felt  that  there  yet  was  much  work  to  be  done  which  he 
could  not  do,  he  turned  lovingly  to  those  about  him  who, 
as  they  were  qualified  for  it,  were  now  to  take  his  place,  and 
looking  earnestly  at  them  said:  'l  Mind  poor  Friends  in  Ireland 
— mind  poor  Friends  in  America ,"  and  as  if  to  emphasize  the 
message,  with  all  the  sanctity  of  a  dying  request,  he 
repeated,  "  Mind  i><><,r  Friends  in  America." 

As  we  look  hack  over  the  history  of  these  early  Friends, 
we  are  tempted  to  ask  have  subsequent  results  compensated 


29 


for  this  fearful  expenditure  of  all  that  men  deem  valuable 
in  life, — health,  strength,  liberty, — life  itself? 

/  think  they  have,  and  I  include  in  this  expenditure,  the 
frightful  persecutions  in  New  England,  where  three  highly 
cultivated  Christian  men  had  their  ears  cut  off;  where  deli- 
cately nurtured  women,  younger  and  older,  were  whipped 
at  the  cart-tail  from  town  to  town,  and  where  Robinson, 
Stevenson,  Leddra  and  Mary  Dyer  perished  by  the  hand  of 
the  hangman. 

As  I  read  to-day,  on  every  side,  the  recognition  of  the 
great  doctrine  of  an  indwelling  Christ,  hear  it  preached  by 
Episcopalian,  Presbyterian,  Baptist  and  others,  see  how  it 
permeates  the  life  of  the  best  men  in  all  our  churches,  to 
what  results  it  has  already  led,  and  to  what  higher  ones  it 
is  leading ;  when  I  see,  as  I  daily  do,  their  views  on  tithes, 
on  oaths,  on  complete  religious  toleration,  accepted  as  correct 
by  Christians  all  about  me,  I  know  that  these  early  Friends 
did  not  live — did  not  die — in  vain. 

I  have  elsewhere1  spoken  on  this  subject,  and  have  there 
quoted  the  remarkable  words  of  the  Bishop  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  of  Pennsylvania,  the  emphatic  language 
of  the  Chairman  of  the  late  Pan-Presbyterian  Council,  and 
I  need  not  repeat  these  here.  But  I  cannot  refrain  from 
calling  your  attention  to  what  I  regard  as  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  modern  recognitions  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
immanence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  occurs  in  a  late  number 
of  the  Princeton  Review,  an  organ  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  is  written  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Episcopal 
Divinity  School  at  Cambridge, — mark,  my  friends,  not  at 
Harvard,  but  the  Episcopal  School  at  Cambridge — that 
Cambridge  through  whose  streets,  two  centuries  ago,  brave 
men  and  delicate  women  were  whipped  at  the  cart-tail, 
almost  under  the  shadow  of  that  k*  bloody  Boston,"  on  whose 
Common — holding  just  such  doctrine — William  Robinson 
and  his  companions  gave  up  their  lives.    The  essay  referred 


1  See  Philadelphia  Friend,  Vol.  54,  p.  218,  et  seq. 


30 


to  is  entitled  "  The  Theological  Renaissance  of  the  19th  Cen- 
tury'' After  noting  the  belief  in  the  early  Greek  Church 
of  a  Being  whose  presence  pervaded  the  whole  earth,  and 
the  substitution  for  this  of  the  idea,  as  prevalent  in  the 
Latin  churches,  of  God  as  remote  from  the  world,  the  author 
traces  the  gradual  re-development  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
quoting  Wordsworth's  beautiful  words,  recognizing  this 
indwelling,  he  adds  :  "  Such  is  the  conviction  which  under- 
lies all  that  is  highest  and  most  truly  characteristic  of  our 
own  age.  Under  its  influence  the  curse  beneath  which  the 
creation  so  long  has  groaned,  has  been  lifted,  and  the  world 
and  humanity  have  become  allied  to  God  in  an  intimate  and 
necessary  relationship."  1 

I  cannot  follow  further  the  writer,  but  will  only  add  that, 
nearly  every  view  presented  by  this  evidently  learned,  sin- 
cere and  thoughtful  churchman  as  the  correct  theology  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  had  been  anticipated  by  George  Fox 
in  the  seventeenth. 

And  here,  too,  I  cannot  refrain  from  noting  in  what  a 
remarkable  manner  the  crime  of  the  New  England  rulers 
towards  the  early  Friends  is  expiated,  so  far  as  it  can  be,  by 


1  The  exact  words  of  the  writer  are:  "The  idea  of  God,  as  seen  in  the 
earlier  Greek  Church,  is  that  of  a  Being  whose  presence  pervades  the  world, 
and  with  whose  essential  nature  man  has  a  constitutional  kinship,  or  rela- 
tion. The  idea  of  God  as  remote  from  the  world,  reigned  supreme  in 
Catholic  and  Protestant  theologies.  The  Lutheran  reformers  distinctly  took 
the  position,  and  in  so  doing  were  followed  by  the  great  English  theologi;  is 
of  the  Puritan  school,  that  God  spoke  to  men  only  through  the  text  and 
letter  of  Scripture.  The  Bible  became  a  substitute  for  a  living  Christ.  If 
God  be  assumed  in  thought  as  at  a  distance  from  the  world,  and,  from  his 
remote  abode,  never  moves  to  draw  any  nearer  to  his  creation  ;  if  Christ 
came  for  a  moment  in  time  [only],  and  departed  [forever]  to  sit  down  on 
his  judgment  throne,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  believe  that  some  vicar  has 
been  appointed  to  represent  absent  Deity,  and  to  govern  not  only  the 
Church,  but  the  world  also  in  his  stead.  A  system  of  mediators  is  sure  to 
arise  as  a  substitute  for  that  living  Divine  presence  which  the  mind  has 
lost." — Princeton  Review,  Nov.,  1882,  page  263.  By  Alexander  V.  G.  Allen, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 


31 


the  most  distinguished  poet  and  by  the  most  eminent  histo- 
rian of  New  England,  of  this  generation. 

With  Whittier's  poems  of  "  Cassandra  Southwick,"  and 
"  The  King's  Missive,"  you  are  doubtless  familiar ;  but  the 
poem  of  "  John  Endicott"  by  Longfellow,  is,  to  my  mind, 
when  I  remember  that  its  author  was  not  a  Friend,  even 
more  remarkable  in  this  way  than  anything  the  Quaker 
poet  has  written.  Considering  the  license  usually  granted 
to  poets,  its  historical  accuracy  is  remarkable.  It  is  in  blank 
verse,  but  some  parts  of  it  are  very  poetical,  as  well  as 
truthful.  The  scene  is  laid  in  Boston,  in  1665,  when  perse- 
cution of  the  Friends  was  at  its  height.  John  Norton,  the 
Puritan  minister,  is  urging  Governor  Endicott  to  greater 
severity,  when  the  latter  says  of  the  Friends  : 

"  Four  already  have  been  slain, 
And  others  banished  upon  pain  of  death ; 
But  they  come  back  again  to  meet  their  doom, 
Bringing  the  linen  for  their  winding  sheets." 

Later  in  the  poem,  Edward  Wharton,  a  Friend,  is  made 
by  the  poet  to  say — what  was  literally  true  of  the  brave 
martyrs,  Robinson  and  Stevenson  : 

"William  and  Marmaduke,  our  martyred  brothers. 
Sleep  in  untimely  graves,  if  aught  untimely 
Can  find  place  in  the  providence  of  God, 
Where  nothing  comes  too  early  or  loo  late. 
I  saw  their  noble  death.    They  to  the  scaffold 
Walked  hand  in  hand.    Two  hundred  armed  men, 
And  man}'  horsemen  guarded  them,  for  fear 
Of  rescue  by  the  crowd,  whose  hearts  were  stirred. 

"  When  they  tried  to  speak, 
Their  voices  by  the  roll  of  drums  were  drowned; 
When  they  were  dead,  they  still  looked  fresh  and  fair, 
The  terror  of  death  was  not  upon  their  faces. 
And  Mary  Dyer  passed  through  martyrdom  to  her  reward. 
Exclaiming,  as  they  led  her  to  her  death, 
'  These  many  days  I've  been  in  Paradise !  ' 
And  Leddra,  too,  is  dead.    But  from  his  prison, 
The  day  before  his  death,  he  sent  these  words 
Unto  the  little  flock  of  Christ." 


32 


I  cannot  follow  the  poet  through  all  his  sad,  but  wonder- 
fully true  narrative ;  how  Edith  Christison  is  condemned  to 
be  whipped  from  town  to  town,  and  Edmund  Wharton 
banished  from  the  Commonwealth.  Then  conies  the  King's 
missive,  forbidding  all  further  persecution  ;  and  then,  per- 
haps, strangest  of  all,  Longfellow  puts  in  the  mouth  of  one 
of  his  characters  George  Fox's  very  words,  written  two 
hundred  years  before  in  his  Journal.1 

"  When  news  of  Leddra's  death 
Reached  England,  Edward  Burrough,  having  boldly 
Got  access  to  the  presence  of  the  king, 
Told  him  there  was  a  vein  of  innocent  blood 
Opened  in  his  dominions  here,  which  threatened 
To  overrun  them  all.    The  king  replied, 
'  But  I  will  stop  that  vein.'    And  he  forthwith 
Sent  his  mandamus  to  our  magistrates, 
That  they  proceed  no  further  in  this  business. 
So  all  are  pardoned,  and  all  set  at  large." 

I  shall  close  my  quotations  from  Longfellow  with  one 
more  paragraph,  first  reading  to  you  what  the  historian 
Bowden  says  of  the  fate  of  those  most  active  in  the  perse- 
cution of  the  Friends  in  New  England  : — "  Bellingham  died 
distracted.  Adderton  was  thrown  from  his  horse  and  killed. 
Norton  died  instantly,  exclaiming,  *  The  hand  of  God  is  on 
me  !'  Danforth  was  struck  dead  by  lightning.  Webb,  who 
led  Mary  Dyer  to  execution,  was  drowned.  Johnson,  who 
led  William  Leddra  to  execution,  became  insane.  Dalton 
was  killed  by  the  falling  of  a  tree.  Brown,  of  Ipswich,  died 
in  great  horror  of  mind,  and  Norris,  of  Salem,  was  struck 
dumb  while  declaiming  against  the  Quakers."  In  the  poem, 
Endicott  says  to  Bellingham,  the  Deputy  Governor: — 

'George  Fox  in  his  Journal,  p.  241,  says:  "As  soon  as  we  heard  of  it, 
Edward  Burrough  went  to  the  king  and  told  him  there  was  a  vein  of  inno- 
cent blood  opened  in  his  dominions  which,  if  it  were  not  stopped,  would 
overrun  all.  To  which  the  king  replied:  'But  I  will  stop  that  vein.' 
Edward  Burrough  said,  'Then  do  it  speedily,  as  we  know  not  how  many 
may  soon  he  put  to  death.'  .  .  So  the  secretary  was  called ;  and  a  man- 
damus was  forthwith  granted." 


33 


"Ah,  Richard  Bellingham,  I  greatly  fear 
That  in  my  righteous  zeal  I  have  been  led 
To  doing  many  things,  which  left  undone, 
My  mind  would  now  be  easier.    Did  I  dream  it, 
Or  has  some  person  told  me  that  John  Norton 
Is  dead  ? 

B.    You  have  not  dreamed  it;  he  is  dead. 

E.    Then  it  was  very  sudden,  for  I  saw  him 

Standing  where  you  now  stand,  not  long  ago. 

B.    By  his  own  fireside,  in  the  afternoon, 

A  faintness  and  a  giddiness  came  over  him, 

And,  leaning  on  the  chimney-piece,  he  cried, 

'  The  hand  of  God  is  on  me !'  and  fell  dead. 

E.    And  did  not  some  one  say — or  have  I  dreamed  it, — 

That  Humphrey  Atherton  is  dead ! 

B.    Alas,  he  too,  is  gone,  and  by  a  death  as  sadden. 

Returning  home  one  evening,  at  the  place 

Where  usually  the  Quakers  have  been  scourged, 

His  horse  took  fright  and  threw  him  to  the  ground, 

So  that  his  brains  were  dashed  about  the  street. 

E.    I  am  not  superstitious,  Bellingham, 

And  yet  I  tremble,  lest  it  may  have  been  a  judgment  on  him. 
B.    80  the  people  think. 

They  say  his  horse  saw,  standing  in  the  way, 

The  ghost  of  William  Leddra.  and  was  frightened. 

And,  furthermore,  brave  Richard  Davenport, 

The  captain  of  the  Castle,  in  the  storm, 

Has  been  struck  dead  by  lightning ! 

E.    Speak  no  more  ! 

For,  as  I  listen  to  your  voice,  it  seems 

As  if  the  seven  thunders  uttered  their  voices, 

And  the  dead  bodies  lay  about  the  streets 

Of  the  disconsolate  city.    Bellingham  ! 

I  did  not  put  those  wretched  men  to  death, 

I  did  but  guard  the  passage  with  the  sword 

Pointed  towards  them,  and  they  rushed  upon  it ; 

Yet  now  I  would  that  I  had  taken  no  part 

In  all  that  bloody  work.*' 

Pardon  this  long  quotation,  but  is  it  not  remarkable,  that 
more  than  two  hundred  years  after  these  events  transpired, 
a  son  of  Xew  England,  not  a  Quaker,  should  in  every  New 
England  home  where  his  poems  are  to  be  found — and  what 
New  England  home  is  without  them — tell  the  story  of  the 
life  and  death  of  these  martyred  Friends  ? 


34 


Whittier's  poem  of  "The  King's  Missive,"  is  also  remark- 
ably historically  correct,  even  to  the  mention  of  a  little  girl 
eleven  years  old,  who  thought  it  her  duty  to  plead  for  these 
poor  prisoners  for  conscience'  sake,  and  who  went  all  the 
way  from  what  was  then  called  New  Netherlands,  but  is  now 
New  York,  to  do  so.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  events 
this  poem  records  occurred  after  the  king's  mandamus  had 
been  received,  releasing  Friends  from  prison.  I  will  read 
a  verse  or  two  of  it. 

"  So  the  door  of  the  jail  was  open  cast, 
And  like  Daniel  out  of  the  lion's  den, 
Tender  youth  and  girlhood  passed, 

With  age-bowed  women  and  grey-locked  men. 
And  the  voice  of  one  appointed  to  die, 
Was  lifted  in  praise  and  thanks  on  high ; 
And  the  little  maid  from  New  Netherlands, 
Kissed,  in  her  joy,  the  doomed  man's  hands. 

"And  one,  whose  call  was  to  minister 

To  the  souls  in  prison,  beside  him  went, 
An  ancient  woman,  bearing  with  her 

The  linen  shroud  for  his  burial  meant. 
For  she,  not  counting  her  own  life  dear. 
In  the  strength  of  a  love  that  cast  out  fear, 
Had  watched  and  served  where  her  brethren  died, 
Like  those  who  waited  the  Cross  beside. 

"  The  autumn  haze  lay  soft  and  still 

On  wood  and  meadow  and  upland  farms  ; 

On  the  brow  of  Snow  Hill  the  great  windmill 
Slowly  and  lazily  swung  its  arms  ; 

Broad  in  the  sunshine  stretched  away, 

With  its  capes  and  islands,  the  turquoise  bay ; 

And  over  water  and  dusk  of  pines, 

Blue  hills  lifted  their  faint  outlines. 

"  The  topaz  leaves  of  the  walnut  glowed, 

The  sumach  added  its  crimson  fleck, 
And  double  in  air  and  water  showed 

The  tinted  maples  along  the  Neck  ; 
Through  frost-flower  clusters  of  pale  star-mist, 
And  gentian  fringes  of  amethyst, 
And  royal  plumes  of  the  golden  rod, 
The  grazing  cattle  on  Centry  trod. 


35 


"  But  as  they  who  see  not,  the  Quakers  saw 
The  world  about  them  :  they  only  thought 
With  deep  thanksgiving  and  pious  awe. 

Of  the  great  deliverance  God  hath  wrought." 

Time  works  great  changes,  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact, 
that  the  historian  Bancroft,  born  in  Massachusetts,  writing 
in  Boston,  has  put  in  Boston  type,  on  Boston  paper,  these 
words:  "The  rise  of  the  people  called  Quakers  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  events  in  the  history  of  man.  It  marks  the 
moment  when  intellectual  freedom  was  claimed  uncondition- 
ally by  the  people  as  an  inalienable  birthright  

The  Quaker  doctrine  is  philosophy  summoned  from  the 
closet,  the  college,  the  saloon,  and  planted  among  the  most 
despised  of  the  people."1 

Surely  the  blood  shed  on  Boston  Common  was  not  shed 
there  in  vain. 

The  visit  of  George  Fox  to  this  country  strengthened  the 
desire  which  had  long  rested  on  his  mind,  that  a  territory 
might  be  owned  in  America  by  Friends,  where  those  who 
wished  to  do  so  might  remove  with  their  families,  where  they 
could  worship  God  without  molestation,  and  where  their 
children  might  have  the  proper  social  surroundings. 

So  early,  indeed,  as  in  the  year  1660.  an  attempt  was  made, 
at  Fox's  suggestion,  and  with  the  aid  of  Josiah  Cole,  a  Avell- 
known  Friend,  to  purchase  a  territory  of  the  Susquehanna 
Indians.2  This  failed  because  of  the  tribal  wars  among  the 
Indians.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  as  suggested  to  me  a  few 
days  since  by  Frederick  D.  Stone,  of  this  city,  that  this  tract 
of  land,  lying  as  it  does  along  the  Susquehanna  Biver,  just 
north  of  the  Maryland  line,  twenty  years  later  became  the 
property  of  Penn,  and  has  since  been  a  part  of  the  Quaker 
settlement. 

From  Maine  to  Florida  the  coast  was  either  colonized  or 
claimed,  and  it  was  not  until  Lord  John  Berkely  ottered  for 

1  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  2,  p.  337. 

-  For  correspondence  on  this  subject,  see  Boivden's  History  of  Friends  in 
America,  Vol.  1,  p.  389. 


86 


sale  his  interest  in  New  Jersey,  that  an  opportunity  was 
afforded  Friends  to  make  such  a  purchase  as  they  had  long 
desired.  This  opportunity  was  eagerly  seized  upon  by 
Edward  Byllinge  and  John  Fenwick,  both  of  whom  belonged 
to  the  Society  of  Friends,  but  who,  in  this  matter,  acted  in 
their  individual  capacity.  Disagreements  occurring  between 
these  two,  William  Penn  kindly  consented  to  act  as  arbi- 
trator. The  dispute  having  been  settled,  John  Fenwick 
sailed  for  the  new  world. 

Pecuniary  embarrassments  occurring  to  Byllinge,  he  trans- 
ferred to  his  creditors  his  interest  in  New  Jersey.  Again 
the  aid  of  William  Penn  was  sought,  and  now  he  consented 
to  act  as  joint  trustee  with  two  of  By  Hinge's  creditors  in  the 
New  Jersey  estate,  and  thus  for  the  first  time  became  per- 
sonally engaged  in  the  establishment  of  an  American  colony. 
It  is  quite  probable  that  William  Perm's  connection  with 
the  affairs  of  New  Jersey  determined  the  establishment  of 
this  Province  by  him  ten  years  later.  It  is  true  that  a  regard 
for  the  aborigines  of  America  and  a  desire  to  do  something 
for  their  welfare  had  long  occupied  his  mind.  "I  had  an 
opening  of  joy  as  to  these  parts,"  he  writes,  "in  the  year 
1661."  This  interest  was  deepened  by  his  acquaintance 
with  the  affairs  of  the  country  as  trustee  for  Byllinge,  by 
his  association  with  Barclay,  even  before  the  latter  became 
Governor  of  East  Jersey,  by  his  conferences  with  George 
Fox,  and  by  his  desire  himself  to  found  a  colony  where 
freedom  of  conscience  should  be  regarded  as  the  inherent 
right  of  every  citizen.  Mark,  my  friends,  not  should  be 
tolerated,  but  should  be  regarded  as  the  inherent  right  of 
every  citizen.1 

1  In  his  address  to  Friends  and  others,  proposing  to  remove  to  New  Jersey, 
William  Penn,  instead  of  holding  out  any  nndne  inducements,  uses  this 
remarkable  language:  "  In  whomsoever  a  desire  is  to  be  concerned  in  this 
intended  plantation,  such  should  weigh  the  thing  before  the  Lord,  and  not 
rashly  conclude  on  any  such  remove  and  that  they  do  not  offer  violence  to 
the  tender  love  of  their  near  kindred  and  relations,  but  soberly  and  consci- 
entiously endeavor  to  obtain  their  good  wills,  the  unity  of  Friends  where 
they  live,  that  whether  they  go  or  stay,  it  may  he  of  good  favor  before  the 


• )  — 
OS 


We  owe,  in  great  measure,  to  William  Penn  the  establish- 
ment of  this  great  principle,  which  is  now  an  essential  part 
of  our  national  Constitution.1  We  owe  to  Penn  and  to  his 
associates  of  New  Jersey,  the  protest  against  protracted 
imprisonment  for  debt.2  We  owe  to  them  also  the  assertion 
that  no  tax  should  be  levied  on  a  people  without  their  con- 
sent.3 We  owe  to  Penn  the  suggestions  for  a  union  of  the 
American  Colonies,  which  were  first  made  by  him  in  the 
year  160  7. 4 

I  shall  not  detain  you  by  repeating  what  the  Bi-Centennial 
anniversary  has  made  so  familiar,  in  the  early  history  of 
William  Penn.  Contemporary  history  often  fail-  to  <!<> 
justice  to  its  subject,  but  Thomas  Story,  himself  a  gentle- 
man by  birth  and  education,  brought  up  to  the  bar,  the  first 
Recorder  of  Philadelphia.  Master  of  the  Rolls,  and  an 
eminent  preacher  among  Friends,  under  date  of  London. 

Lord  (and  good  people),  from  whom  alone  can  all  heavenly  and  earthly 
blessings  come.  This  am  I.  William  Penn.  moved  of  the  Lord  to  write  unto 
you  lest  any  bring  a  temptation  upon  themselves  or  others,  and  in  offending 
the  Lord  slay  their  own  peace.  Blessed  are  they  that  can  see.  and  behold 
Him.  their  leader,  their  orderer.  their  conductor  and  preserver,  in  staying 
or  in  going.  Whose  is  the  earth  and  the  fulness  thereof,  and  the  cattle 
upon  a  thousand  hills." 

In  Smith's  History  of  New  Jersey,  there  is  a  letter  from  Dr.  Daniel  Wills, 
to  his  "  near  and  ancient  acquaintance  William  and  Sarah  Biddle."  in  which, 
with  the  same  spirit  of  caution,  struggling  against  his  wishes,  he  writes  : 
"Now  my  near  and  ancient  acquaintance,  William  and  Sarah  Biddle.  my 
love  you  may  feel  beyond  expression  :  and  if  you  have  clearness  to  come  to 
Xew  Jersey,  let  nothing  hinder:  but  if  you  have  a  stop  within  yourselves, 
let  not  anything  farther  you  until  the  way  clears  to  your  full  satisfaction. 
In  this  advice  I  deny  myself:  if  I  might  I  would  forward  you  to  the  utmost." 
And  then  the  writer  adds,  as  if  he  must  say  it.  "  If  a  man  cannot  live  here, 
I  believe  he  can  hardly  live  in  any  place  in  the  world." 

His  ancient  acquaintance  "  did  have  a  clearness  to  come,  and  they  came. 
Two  centuries  of  their  descendants,  men  active  in  all  those  good  works 
which  promote  the  welfare  of  the  State,  have  shown  that  William  and  Sarah 
Biddle  did  not  mistake  the  pointings  of  the  Divine  Finger. 

1  See  Concessions  and  Agreements  of  Proprietors  of  West  Jersey. 

-  Ibid.  *  Ibid. 

*  Contributions  to  American  Hi*toni ;  Penna.  Hist.  Soc.  vol.  6,  p.  2»>L 


38 


1694,  thus  writes:  "What  added  much  to  my  encourage- 
ment, was  the  fatherly  care  and  behavior  of  the  ministers 
in  general,  but  especially  of  that  great  minister  of  the  gospel, 
and  faithful  servant  of  Christ,  William  Penn,  who  abounded 
in  wisdom,  discretion,  prudence,  love  and  tenderness,  of 
affection,  with  all  sincerity,  above  most  in  this  generation, 
and,  indeed,  I  never  knew  his  equal." 

Those  of  you  who  may  be  interested  in  the  further  study 
of  the  men  who  gave  stability  to  our  colonial  government 
will  find  in  the  Philadelphia  "Friend,"  Vols.  27th  to  35th, 
inclusive,  very  full  and  interesting  notices  of  many  of  them. 
They  are  written  by  the  late  Nathan  Kite,  and  must  have 
required  great  research  for  their  preparation. 

The  second  voyage  of  William  Penn,  though  not  attended 
with  illness,  was,  fortunately,  a  long  one,  for  had  he  arrived 
at  the  time  he  was  expected  he  would  have  found  prevailing 
in  Philadelphia  a  fearful  epidemic  of  yellow  fever.  It  is  an 
interesting  fact  that  for  a  correct  history  of  the  yellow  fever 
of  1699,  the  medical  profession  and  the  community  are 
indebted  to  a  non-professional  writer,  Thomas  Story,  who, 
though  engaged  in  religious  service  here,  has  left  a  graphic 
sketch  of  this  terrible  pestilence. 

And  now,  in  closing  my  lecture,  I  wish  to  say  that,  in 
preparing  it,  I  have  been  agreeably  surprised  at  the  richness 
of  the  field  into  which  it  has  led  me,  and  the  abundance  of 
material  to  be  found  there. 

While  I  am  well  aware  how  imperfectly  I  have  brought 
this  material  before  you,  I  must  say,  in  my  own  behalf,  that 
I  have  been  obliged  to  turn  aside  from  many  tempting  paths 
of  research,  and  have  been  compelled  to  omit  many  pages 
of  what  I  had  written  lest  I  should  encroach  unduly  on  your 
time  and  patience.  The  literature  of  the  early  Friends  is 
amazing  in  its  extent ;  how  they  ever  found  time  to  write  and 
to  print  so  much  I  cannot  understand.  Here  is  George  Fox's 
folio  journal  of  nearly  seven  hundred  pages.  Here  are 
selections  from  William  Penn's  writings,  a  folio  of  more  than 
eight  hundred  pages.    Indeed  the  theme,  "  William  Penn 


39 


as  an  author,"  would  make  a  longer  lecture  than  I  have 
given  you  this  evening. 

The  journal  of  Thomas  Story,  a  folio  of  six  hundred 
pages,  is  written  with  great  force  and  beauty  of  style,  and 
the  life  of  Thomas  Ell  wood  is  one  of  those  bright  pictures 
of  home-life  in  the  seventeenth  century,  at  the  house  of  Isaac 
Penington,  which  is  both  interesting  and  instructive. 

Ellwood  was  tutor  to  Penington's  children,  and  at  one  time 
was  reader  to  the  blind  poet,  John  Milton.  It  seems  to  bring 
those  times  pretty  closely  home  to  students  of  this  day  to 
read  that  Milton  had  learned  the  Continental  pronunciation 
of  Latin,  and  Ellwood  the  English,  and  that  the  same  con- 
fusion which  exists  nowadays  on  this  account  obtained  two 
centuries  ago.  These  and  many  other  matters  may  be  found 
in  the  literature  of  the  early  Friends,  and  while  I  am  content 
to  leave  out  of  my  recommendation  their  purely  contro- 
versial works,  I  cannot  do  better  than  bid  you,  in  the 
language  of  Charles  Lamb,  get  their  history  by  heart  and 
"love  the  early  Quaker^.*' 

There  are  many  lessons  to  be  learned  from  what  we  have 
been  considering  this  evening,  but  there  is  one  which  I  think 
must  commend  itself  to  all  of  us.  It  is  that  we  should  be 
charitable  in  our  judgment  of  the  religious  opinions  of 
others  however  much  they  may  differ  from  our  own,  when 
those  who  hold  them  show,  by  their  daily  life,  that  they  are 
sincere  in  their  belief,  however  erroneous  we  may  deem  it. 

The  longer  I  live  and  the  more  my  daily  duties  bring  me 
in  association  with  my  fellows — of  almost  every  religious  sect 
— the  more  do  I  find  in  them  of  sympathy  for  suffering,  of 
readiness  to  help  the  afflicted,  and  to  reclaim  the  erring,  of 
those  good  qualities  of  the  heart  which  form  a  common  plat- 
form to  meet  upon  ;  and  every  year's  experience  convinces 
me  that  did  good  people  know  each  other  more  they  would 
like  each  other  more,  and  judge  each  other  more  kindly. 

It  would  have  been  difficult  to  offer  to  the  English  people 
of  the  seventeenth  century — as  they  understood  them — any 
doctrines  more  opposed  to  the  prevailing  belief,  than  were 


40 


some  of  those  of  the  early  Friends;  and  yet  the  faithfulness 
of  these  Friends,  their  undoubted  sincerity,  their  exemplary 
lives,  and  the  fact  that  these  doctrines  had  the  Divine 
approval,  wrought  their  slow  but  sure  acceptance. 

This  charity  need  involve  no  disloyalty  to  convictions  of 
our  own  duty.  It  is  the  kindly  judging  of  the  motives  and 
even  of  the  acts  themselves,  rather  than  the  approval  of 
those  acts,  which  it  implies. 

The  late  Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley,  Dean  of  Westminster, 
in  one  of  his  latest  poems,  has  largely  recognized  this  truth. 
Writing  of  the  higher  life  beyond  this,  and^  what  we  may 
hope  to  find  there,  he  says  : 

'"There  may  we,  rejoicing  moot 

Loved  and  Lost,  our  heart's  best  treasures, 

Not  without  surprises  sweet, 

Mount  with  them  to  loftier  pleasures, 

Though  the  earthly  bond  be  gone, 

Yet  the  spirits  still  are  one, 

One  in  love,  and  hope,  and  faith, 

One  in  all  that  conquers  death." 

■'  And  in  those  celestial  spheres, 

Shall  not  then  our  keener  vision, 
See.  athwart  the  mist  of  years, 

Through  the  barriers  of  division, 
Holy  soul  and  noble  mind, 
From  their  baser  dross  refined, 
Heroes  in  the  better  land, 
Whom  below  we  scorned  or  banned." 


PHOTOMOUNT 
PAMPHLET  BINDER 


Manu/actuttd  by 
GAYLORD  BROS.  If 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
StocWtofi,  Calif. 


DATE  DUE 



GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.A. 

